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Jaqui's Daily Blog

Sunday 12th August

Mr B and I, along with millions of others, will be watching the Olympics Closing Ceremony this evening. We will be watching in the company of good friends, which is the very best way to share a momentous televised
event. This is not to imply that Mr B is not the very best of company, you understand, but the presence of others will doubtless keep him awake for longer than if it was just the two of us.

"I was just resting my eyes!" he is wont to protest, when I shake him awake, halfway through his favourite programmes. Thank goodness for the record-and-save function on our TV which enables him to watch everything he's missed the following morning
while I am enjoying a happy retirement lie-in. But tonight, well it's history, isn't it? You can't go resting your eyes during tonight's extravaganza. It simply won't be the same watching it tomorrow morning.....

What is taxing my brain today, however, is not how to keep Mr B awake while the strongest, the bravest, the fastest and the fittest parade their flags around the Olympic Stadium. It's the question of the legacy of London 2012
- and how it pertains to me.

OK so I realise that the "Inspire a Generation" slogan was aimed at the children of today not those of yesterday (or the day before.) It's on the school
playing fields, the local football ground or netball court, the gymnasium, the swimming pool, the cycle track where the legacy will be seen. But why not in my life, too? What sporting activity has the Games inspired me to take up?

Trouble is, every sport I think about seems to have one or two fatal drawbacks. Take diving, for example. I love the idea of spinning and twisting in the air before plunging like a straight arrow into the cool
blue depths of the diving pool. But unfortunately I've never been able to bring myself even to jump off the side of a swimming pool into the water. 10 metres up might just be a problem.....

Tennis, then. I once came second in a Ladies Singles Competition at a holiday camp on the Isle of Wight. I bet you're impressed, aren't you? You needn't be. The only two entrants were the youngest of the Darling Daughters and me and
she beat me without losing a single game.

Archery? Shooting? But Mr B says, please can I not take up any sport which requires a sense of direction, especially ones involving weapons. He
has a well-honed sense of self-preservation, you can tell.

I could take up Beach Volleyball but I don't own a bikini; or Dressage but I don't own a horse. I could take up Boxing but I
really, really don't like getting hurt. I am, to put it bluntly, a bit of a coward.

It looks as if it will have to be something to do with boats. After all, we do live near the sea.
Then Mr B reminds me of the Canoe Safari we went on, one holiday years ago. We tipped over into the water twice, once at the top of a rapid, once at the bottom. Our waterproof moneybag was floating off in one direction, Mr B's Tottenham Hotspur
hat in the other. Guess which one I opted to save?

Priorities, that's what it's all about. It's the younger generation who need to be inspired. Me? Well, it's four years till Rio.
Plenty of time to make up my mind...